Tools, Dials & unexpected Levers

I’m a bookseller and yesterday an old lady (who was a mathematics teacher years ago, she told me) asked me about Scratch (“a block-based visual programming language and online community targeted primarily at children”).

Her granddaughter was studying it and she wanted to learn it, being curious. I was amazed, because… it’s not very common.

As she was a bit doubtful, I explained her it was easy to learn, and told her about my pleasure learning HTML and, a long time ago, programming for days in the BASIC language.

But then, I could hear myself telling her about pleasure.

Because I do remember very well the pleasure of programming!

It’s not like writing an article. Maybe more like composing music! It’s something you build (or you weave) and you constantly check if it works properly. You have to develop other ways of thinking, imagine processes. It’s invention!

So it puts you in the state of “flow“. But more important : programming puts your brain in another state, maybe similar to kids’ when they play Lego.

I felt this when I learned English too.

So what I realized is : it’s good sometimes to learn how to do something you don’t know at all. I wonder where it comes from (probably because your brain connects new things)…

A need to come back to simple black coffee with a knowledge of origins, ethics, taste subtleties : specialty coffee.

TWO

Before the invention of recording, the music you had is the music you or people played.

It’s been a climbing :

Came vinyl, then LPs. From mono came stereo, waow!

Hi-Fi has been the word, for a few decades : the goal was to get a better sound.

Compact Disc came : better dynamics, no clicks and pop, no pre-echo…

Then a fall :

MP3 and other “compressed” sound, a music disaster.

Then “the return of the vinyl”, which is like this :

What I expect today, like for coffee, is a… public sudden understanding that the quality of recorded music IS important. The tools already exist, with Blu-ray audios, or portable players which can play FLAC and other uncompressed music.

Like this:

A UK wide survey reveals the extent to which the younger generation feel disillusioned, with the MAJORITY (89 percent) of 16-29 year olds, claiming their life lacks purpose or meaning.

Then I learned about three French guys this summer :

A Franco-Canadian man, a 44-year-old musician, died after being attacked by a grizzly bear in a remote area of Canada last week. He was surprised by the animal in his sleep. He was travelling along the Mackenzie River to record sounds of nature for a musical project.

The adventure of an “eco-adventurer” originating from northern France and living in Toronto, which was supposed to last more than two months, ended tragically during the second stage of his crossing of Canada by bike and kayak.

The body of a French hiker, 27, who disappeared in Italy after making an emergency call 10 days ago has been found in a ravine near Naples. He made a plea for help on 9 August, saying he had fallen down a cliff and broken both legs while walking in south-west Italy.

Then this :

Antidepressant usage has increase almost 400% over the past few years. 23% of women in their 40s and 50s take antidepressants. Women are 2 1/2 times more likely to take an antidepressant than men. Antidepressant usage does not vary by income level.

In other words, it’s safe to say there’s a health, happiness, and antidepressant prescription epidemic going on in USA. Why are people so miserable? Or why are antidepressant medications on the rise?

Then, I found this chart :

Today :

Jessi Combs, famed racer, skilled fabricator, lover of all things automotive, and the “fastest woman on four wheels,” as reportedly died while attempting to set a new land speed record in Oregon. She was just 36 years old.

So this is slowly becoming : what’s happening?

I asked friends, who all agree. In the old ages, we human beings struggled to survive, then (and also), we were constantly working. But today is the days of… more free time. Then how do you live? I wondered once :

Like this:

Quietism is a doctrine introduced from Spain to France in the XVIIth Century.

It’s an interesting thing to study even if you’re not a believer!

You just had to find a state, a calm quiet state, to reach, without all the flounces and frills of rites and charity, a total simple communion with God.

In a way, that’s convenient, like a Zen idea of religion : no need to pray or fast to reach a state of perfection, an easy sinless (as you don’t have to obey millions of rules) and sacramentless state.

“…neither fear of punishment nor desire for the reward of eternal life having anything to do with this pure love of God.”

So it’s been a great fight in France between Fenelon, an archbishop and Bossuet, a theologian and orator (you can Wikipedia all this, it’s quite funny).

Adoration, cut from all terrestrial ties, redacted from any search of “rewards”, or fear of punishments : no more prayers, confessions, fear of hell, no more care of Jesus and all questions about this.

The tool here is :

What if you suppress all intermediaries? What if you reach the source? What if you focus on the core? What frills and rites do you kill?